Gwen walked down the hallway by herself. The others had ran off somewhere right after class, they said they had to get a "special" book from the library. So this left Gwen to her own thoughts. She walked around the school thinking about what Marigold said. 'Whose heard of a captain with glasses?' This bugged her so much. She can do any thing that Marigold can do. Gwen's been in gymnastics and fencing. She can do those things that Nicole talked about in class. But then she remembered that if her glasses fell off or get broken she is going to be as blind as a bat. 'Yeah that's some captain.' She thought to herself. Then someone calling her name interrupting her thoughts. She turned around and saw her roommates running at her with big smiles on their faces.
"What are you all smiling about?" She asked.
"Caroline found a potion that will help you to see without your glasses." Jimena said.
"Really!"
"Yeah." Caroline said while holding up an old ratty book. "I had to sneak it out of the section we're not aloud in."
"Also, we owe Sarah." Lizzy said.
"She got detention because of us." Kara added. Gwen looked at each one of their smiling faces. Then it occurred to Gwen that they were the ones who were going to make the potion, which was a bad thing.
"I don't like those looks." She said as she backed away from them. They grabbed her and dragged her to their dorm. Caroline hid the book in her bag as they went through the common room.
Soon Gwen found herself in her dorm room watching the four girls prepare to make the potion. Lizzy started a fire in the fireplace as Caroline wrote down the ingredients for the potion.
"You know I really don't want to be on the team that bad." Gwen said as she inched her way to the door. Kara blocked her.
"What are you so worried about?" She asked.
"Not living to see my 12th birthday."
"Why do you have such little faith in us?" Lizzy asked as she threw more kindling into the flames.
"You're just as bad at potions as I am."
"That's only because Doyle makes us nervous." Said Caroline from the floor. "Don't worry." She finished copying the ingredients. "This potion is going to be a piece of cake." She got up. "Jimena can you go get these?"
"Sí, Señorita." Jimena said as she took the list and left. In a matter of minutes Jimena came back with the ingredients and Lizzy had the fire going. Caroline sat on the floor next to the fireplace with the book in her lap. In a few hours it got dark out. Gwen was siting at the window, listening to Caroline stirring the potion, mumbling to herself once in a while and to Kara, Lizzy and Jimena's friendly game of poker. (Jimena would start cursing at them in Spanish every so often.) Gwen was brought back from her thoughts when she heard an 'OOPS' from Caroline. The poker game stopped and they looked at her as well as Gwen.
"What is it?" Lizzy asked.
"It's nothing." She laughed nervously. "Nothing to worry about."
"Nothing to worry about, nothing to worry about!" Gwen yelled. "Easy for you to say. You're not the one who has to drink that." Gwen got up from her seat to look in to the small cauldron. "Is it suppose to look like that?"
"Yes." Caroline picked up the book to look at it much closely. "Maybe." She looked into the cauldron. "Does that look pinkish gray?"
"It looks like a greenish gray."
"Shush. Now, go sit down, your potion is almost ready." Gwen walked back to the window and sat down. In five minutes later, Caroline was holding a glass one third of the way full of the greenish gray solution in front of her. The smell of it was burning her nostrils. "You have to drink this all until it is gone." Gwen took the glass and looked at it. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She brought the glass to her lips. The solution tasted sour and it burned her throat as it went down. Her eyes started to burn and water.
"That was horrible!" She took off her glasses to rub her eyes.
"Do you think it's working?" Kara asked.
"I'm not sure, I'm getting over the taste." Then she started to feel lightheaded. "Am I su…" She fell to the floor in to a dead faint. The four girls rushed to her.
"You killed her!" Kara said in shock.
Gwen came to two minutes later. The sour taste was still in her mouth and her head was spinning.
"Gwen, are you all right?" Asked one of her friends. She opened her eyes. Four blurry figures stood over her.
"Can you see?" Asked another.
"No."
"Look what you did! You made her blind!"
"I'm not blind."
"Oh, here." One of them put her glasses back on.
"What happened?" Gwen asked when she was able to see Caroline.
"I might have added a bit too much swamp water." Caroline said.
"Is that why you said 'OOPS'." Gwen asked as she got up.
"Yeah." There was a knock at the door.
"Who is it?" Lizzy asked.
"It's Nicole." The girls looked around the room, their potion stuff was all over the floor.
"Hold on!" Caroline yelled all five girls ran around the room hiding the things in their beds and trunks and also putting out the fire.
"What about that?" Kara asked pointing at the cauldron by the fire.
"Put it behind the door." Gwen said. "We'll get rid of it tonight." Kara put it behind the door before she opened it.
"Yes. How may I help you?" She said uneasy to Nicole. She looked around at the nervous girls.
"Are you going to dinner?" She asked like she knew they were up to something.
"Yeah!" They said at the same time.
"OK, so you should come down then." Looking at them suspiciously as she left. The girls filed out of the room making sure no one was outside the room.
"Gwen," Kara said from behind her. "I never notice this but your roots look really dark."
